Find A Penny

Pick It Up

And All The Day

You’ll Have Good Luck

Well that’s how the rhyme went although there are those that say its original form was “Find A Pin”. What kind of pin? Hair, safety, hat pin…I could go on.

Does anyone pick up pennies anymore? I’ve heard that some knuckleheads actually throw them away, which is just silly and tempting fate – if you ask me. I’ve been seeing more and more of them (pennies) lately and I tend to pass them by. I think about picking them up but an irrational fear comes over me – as if it is a trap or something. Do I look greedy? Is this one of those Candid Camera tricks and it is stuck on the ground with glue? Is someone aware they dropped it and are coming back? Yes, yes we’ve already established I’m a tad paranoid but what if the luck is meant for someone else? My life isn’t that bad so maybe someone could use the luck more. Sure I could use some luck in certain area (areas that shall go nameless) but I’m happy to give my penny to a fellow American who is down on his luck. 😉

Standing at the car wash (branded a fool) I feel a pitiful penny staring at the small of my back. I know it’s there and I am ignoring it. It is yearning to be held in my hot little hand. It knows that I will care for it, place it securely with others of its kind, older and wiser pennies that have been through several wars. Finally off the cold, hard streets of Los Angeles it can find some solace in my cigar box and sleep quietly…until I get off my lazy rear and go to the Coinstar machine. It reminds me of an art piece I have. A friend glued a few hundred pennies together and placed them in a frame. It’s quite pretty actually. Come to think of it I think he did it to an old Cadillac too. Now thats a lot of pennies.

There is a woman sitting nearby waiting for her Maserati, she sure doesn’t need this penny. Or does she? Doesn’t everyone?

I wonder how I can pick it up without too much notice. I wonder if she is mad that my enormous beater of a truck will probably be finished before her car. Then I throw caution to the wind, drop my keys and pick up the penny with them. My eyes are trying to focus on the date but without my glasses it is futile. Does it say 1962? 1992? Wait! I can just make it out: 2002! Still shiny, and full of hope, young and impetuous! I think 2002 was a good year for cabernet…sure, that’s a good enough excuse to keep it!

Lost her favorite
So I gave her a dolla…

-De La Soul